Kapil's 175*

The day was June 18, 1983. Cricket World Cup 1983 hosted by England. England had hosted the two prior World cups too - in 1976 and in 1979 and in both World Cups, India didn't perform too well. So in this tournament too, nothing much was expected of India. 

But no one expected that the captain, all of 25 years old then, could upset the applecart. Most believe, including me, that the turning point for India came about on 18th June, 1983 in Turnbridge Wells where India played Zimbabwe.

It was a glorious summer day (as we are led to believe) and India was playing Zimbabwe. Two teams that were weak and didn't really attract the sort of spectators that other teams attracted then. The match was also scheduled in a remote 'village ground' called Turnbridge Wells. There were a few other matches being played that day and all matches were of 60 overs per side those days and all were day matches. BBC, the sole telecast provider sent in their camera and crew over to cover the other matches and there were no cameras for this match since it was being played between two lowly ranked sides.

I was employed in National Productivity Council (NPC) those days and had joined the Hyderabad office of that organisation in January that year. However, since we could be asked to join any team in any other site, I was deployed in Bangalore for about a month or two. It was on June 18th that I found myself in the client organisation's small office (pumping station of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board) in the outskirts of Bangalore.

I had a team-mate from my PG batch who was equally a cricket fan and he had a small transistor radio. This came in handy because we could come back to the guest house and listen to the radio commentary. We both came back to our rooms around the time India started batting and realized with deep agony that India was reduced to a paltry score of 9 runs for the loss of 4 wickets and in strode the captain Kapil Dev. Soon it became 17 for 5. My room mate and I decided to skip the rest of the commentary and went for a long walk to the 'market' about 3 kms away. We walked slowly taking in the rural scenery and the balmy June weather near Bangalore; had some tea and snacks in a road-side eatery and made our way back equally slowly. 

After reaching the guest house and finishing with our dinner, we both went back to our room and turned on the transistor to hear that Zimbabwe were batting and India had scored 266/8. An unbelievable score. The commentators were oftentimes mentioning how Kapil Dev singlehandedly took India out of deep waters by scoring a rapid unbeaten 175 in the company of Madan Lal and later in the company of Syed Kirmani. 

I sorely miss not listening to the full commentary of India innings! It must have been one hell of a performance. Even now we hear people talk of Kapil Dev's batting and captaincy in the World Cup. It is widely believed by fans, critics, and players alike that Kapil Dev instilled a sense of confidence and self-belief to the team members that they could win from any position!

As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of that momentous day today, I thought I should mention what I was doing on that day - or more honestly, what I didn't do that day!

Parakh (Hindi movie, 1960)

 

Yesterday I was keen on watching an old (in my case it would always mean 'black and white') movie. So was searching for an appropriate movie to watch. Stumbled (yes, that's the word) upon 'Parakh' on YouTube. When the movie had run for about 2 minutes or so, I thought I should try and find it on other OTT platforms and see if a better quality movie was available there. Checked out on Prime Video, Zee5, and Sony Liv; but no luck. So continued watching the movie on YouTube. I was not aware of the plot, director, story writer, or other characters in the movie. But one song is just memorable and I listen to that song quite often. It is among Lata Mangeshkar's favourites too. No wonder! The YouTube link to the song is below:

Link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTl3-F24thk

Suffice it to say that I could watch the movie for the song also just in case the movie didn't hold my attention! Anyway, this blog post is not about the song; it is about the movie! About 15 minutes into the movie, I thought the story is dragging and there isn't much to recommend about it. No wonder Bimal Roy's directorial venture is not so well known unlike his other movies like Madhumati, Do Bigha Zamin, Sujata, etc. Then a twist happened. The character in the movie whom I thought didn't have much of a role suddenly became an important character!

(No spoilers ahead) The movie is about democracy and a sarcastic though light-hearted take on how it is misused by various politicians. I was surprised that a movie made in 1960 is still relevant today. Probably more relevant now, what with politicians wooing voters with freebies and bribing them with money and favours before elections to vote for them. I was reminded of Cho's Mohammed Bin Thuglak, a commentary on the political landscape in India. In the stage play, before the screen is lifted and the play begins, there is a voice over with a comment thanking the politicians of the day in ensuring that the story and dialogues in the play, which hadn't undergone any changes, remained relevant when I watched it about 2 decades after it was written. The movie makers of Parakh could also be proud of the fact that after 6 decades the politicians of today ensure that the story remains relevant today!

In case you have time and are interested, you can watch the movie here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF269zCOSuM

 

 

 

Change; Improve; Become Better. Or should you?

If you are a lunatic or have been living under the proverbial rock, you wouldn't be far from accessing and using social media like WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and myriad other tools that inundate our lives. I confess I am addicted to WhatsApp and Twitter. I was pretty active on Facebook for a few years, but quit. Really found that a difficult thing to do and not because I had second thoughts about quitting Facebook, but only because Facebook would not like to let me go! It kept asking me if I was sure I wanted to quit, delete my account, delete all the posts and replies, etc. I confirmed. It warned me that if I did so, I would lose everything. I know that and am prepared for it; that is why I have decided to quit you! C'mon, I have experience of saying 'katti' to my friends in my childhood days and did not talk to them for years on end, and most times for the flimsiest of reasons. So yes! Facebook, I am seriously not interested in continuing with my account. Please let me go! So what do you think Facebook finally did? The last pop-up message was that my account and messages, and replies, etc would be preserved for a few weeks in case I decided to reactivate my account. It was as if I wanted to end our relationship and Facebook, like a jilted lover, wouldn't let go. 

This blog post is not about Facebook, though having written that word, I became tempted to write something about my experience of ending my relationship with that social medium! In case you are similarly active on any of those social media outlets mentioned earlier, you may be inundated with various messages about how you should strive to be better; more efficient; more loving and caring; how change is not only good, but inevitable; and lastly we humans have achieved so much because individually and collectively we have transformed ourselves to be more effective and have always found ways to become a better person today than what we were yesterday.

So today, while I opened my Mozilla Firefox browser on my laptop, I got a range of links to articles and one of them caught my eye. It screamed in fairly bold letters, It’s Time To Stop Moralizing Every Daily Habit. What? Isn't that what I read everyday on my social media feed? Isn't that what every friend of mine wants me to do? I opened that link and realized it is a collection of various articles that have appeared in getpocket.com and you can find them here. Some articles that are embedded in the link are titled very provocatively as below:

1. Why waking up earlier isn't necessarily better! Did I get that right? Do you really think so? I have a habit of waking up at 5.30 and am now thinking of waking up at 5. And here is someone who wants me to wake up at probably 8. The author is lucky my father isn't alive; else he would have chewed up the writer. He hated anyone he saw sleeping after he had brushed his teeth! That was the limit of his tolerance for 'waking up late'.

2. There is no such thing as "junk food". Yes, you read it right. There is nothing called junk food. So what about "Super Size Me"? Is that a fake story? This is what is mentioned in the Wikipedia article about the movie:

         Super Size Me is a 2004 American documentary film directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. Spurlock's film follows a 30-day period from February 1 to March 2, 2003, during which he ate only McDonald's food. The film documents the drastic effect on Spurlock's physical and psychological health and well-being. It also explores the fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit and gain. 

So what should we believe? My advice: Avoid junk food like the plague, or better still like Covid!

3. You are not so bad: The case against Self-Improvement. Now this really got me thinking about what the writer wants to convey. Now I realize that this itself is a collection of various articles and you can find the links to them over here. One of them tells me "What it is like to get worse at something". Seriously? Another one goes "How to be mediocre and be Happy with yourself". I would be mad at myself if I didn't find ways to do things more efficiently and effectively over time. I have trained for that, dammit!

Do let me know if you want to change or want to be worse off!

Cheers!